Fire, Four Women, Green Valley, Action Comics, Heroes in Crisis

Still catching up on new comics from while I was gone.

Heroes in Crisis 2

Things I didn’t like:

I don’t buy that Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman would bare their souls confessional-style.  It feels out of character.

No way Harley Quinn can beat Batman 1-on-1, let alone all three of the Trinity.  

Booster Gold.  I’ve yet to like him in anything I’ve ever read him in.  

Lois’ outfit.  Who wears an ensemble like that to work?

Great for the nightclub, not for the office.

Things I liked:

Batman lying about the kryptonite in his belt.  

Harley booping Ivy.

Harley saying goodbye to Ivy (What’s all that about?  Is Ivy dead?)

Lovely work by Clay Mann.

Action Comics 1004

Bendis writes a great Lois/Clark relationship.  Which makes it all the stranger that Bendis uses this issue to separate the couple.  I hope this isn’t how Lois takes a backseat in the run. I want more of them together.  

Thank you, Ryan Sook, Wade Von Grawbadger, and Brad Anderson.

Fire TPB

One of Bendis’ earliest works.  The facility with dialog is there, and I think it’s a shame that he’s not doing art anymore, but the plot is weak sauce and the lettering is atrocious.  In the afterword, Bendis talks about how he redid the lettering, and it blows my mind that even after taking a mulligan, he’s unable to tell the difference “your” and “you’re.”  It’s infuriating.

This is worth reading to see the evolution of Bendis over the years, but not a key part of his output.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Four Women 1-5

The titular four women undergo a harrowing ordeal when they get stranded in their car in the middle of nowhere.  The details are slowly revealed as a therapist picks apart the unreliable narrator’s story.

Sam Kieth does an amazing job of creating an ominous, terrifying environment.  The first three pages of the first two issues are ridiculously effective at making me not want to know what’s going on.  I know it’s nothing good, and I’d rather leave it a mystery.

What's happening to her???  I don't want to know!!!

The reader eventually finds out, of course, and I found myself slightly disappointed at the outcome.  Things get resolved a little too easily, and the aftermath has an odd “begging for forgiveness from Jesus” feeling that was too pat.  

Still, this is a different type of miniseries (as Kieth comics tend to be), and I’m always entertained whenever I pull this out for a re-read.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Green Valley 1-3

This starts out so so strong.  Four stalwart knights, protectors of their kingdom, are finally defeated in battle, which results in the sacking of their home and the deaths of everyone they know.  After licking their wounds for a year, a boy from a distant village recruits them to fight an evil wizard who’s been terrorizing the area.

Everything is awesome up to this point.  The story by Max Landis is excellent, and Giuseppe Camuncoli’s art is equally strong.  The camaraderie between the knights and their distinctive personalities make them protagonists that I want to follow.  How are they going to recover from their losses? What amazing adventures will they embark on next? I wanted to know.

Then the third issue comes along and it all goes to shit.  The wizard is a time travelling punk from the future. He has a future iPad that can control the weather, shoot energy blasts, and generate personal force fields.  Are you fucking kidding me?

Maybe there’s a situation where I would have found this to be a neat twist, but this wasn’t it.  It completely derailed my expectations, and changed the title to something uninteresting to me. Such a shame, I would have followed the initial premise for quite some time.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good, until it totally wasn’t.